About Cigar Galaxy (M82)

Cigar Galaxy is a rewarding deep-sky target and shows up as a faint patch of light. It has moderate brightness.

Current visibility

Right now it is at about 20° altitude and reaches 20° around 06:16 PM.

It does not reach a useful observing altitude today.

Galaxies are sensitive to light pollution, subtle features are easily lost in bright skies.

Observing tips

It can be challenging under typical skies.

What to expect

At higher magnification, subtle detail can be detected.

Type

Irregular Galaxy

Constellation

Ursa Major

Distance

12000000 ly

Size

11.0' x 4.6'

Season

Spring

Difficulty

Easy

Magnitude

8.4